The present invention relates to a refrigeration appliance, in particular a domestic refrigerator, comprising a body and associated internal lighting. The internal lighting is designed to fulfill a plurality of disparate requirements. On the one hand, uniform illumination of the interior of the body over its entire height is required, even when the propagation of light in said interior is impaired by shelves and refrigerated items placed thereon; on the other hand, the illuminants used for the lighting must take up as little space as possible in the interior and also impart little heat thereto.
Powerful light-emitting diodes, particularly white emitting LEDs, which have been available for a number of years, offer the promise of ideally fulfilling these requirements. A refrigeration appliance in which light-emitting diodes are used for interior lighting is disclosed e.g. in DE 298 14 243 U1. This publication proposes accommodating light-emitting diodes in recesses in a side wall of the appliance body. Proposed mounting locations for the light-emitting diodes are, on the one hand, guide grooves in the side wall which are intended for accommodating and guiding glass shelves; alternatively, large-area recesses with LEDs can be disposed at the level of a compartment between two guide grooves, or a vertically elongated recess intersects the guide grooves. The light-emitting diodes disposed in the guide grooves essentially inject their light into the shelves. By essentially propagating therein by total internal reflection, the light can be distributed unobstructedly over the entire height and breadth of the interior, but only a small amount of light emerges from the shelves, so that the effectiveness of the lighting remains poor despite a theoretically good luminous efficacy. Moreover, the light essentially emerges from the shelves at locations where total internal reflection is disturbed, these being in practice mainly dirty locations. Any soiling of the shelves is therefore clearly visible, but the cleaner the shelves, the less light can reach the outside.
The light-emitting diodes accommodated in the large-area recesses do not have these disadvantages. In order to spread the light of said LEDs and achieve uniform lighting of the interior, it is proposed to seal the recesses with a diffuse pane in each case. Such a pane scatters the light in all directions, not only onto the refrigerated items, but also into the eyes of a user standing in front of the appliance. As the diffusing panes are much brighter than items illuminated thereby in the interior, it is difficult to avoid dazzling the user.    Published unexamined patent application JP 2008 070 080A shows a refrigeration appliance wherein a plurality of light-emitting diodes are disposed on side walls of the appliance in each case.    Published unexamined patent application JP 2008 073 153A shows a refrigeration appliance wherein a plurality of light-emitting diodes are disposed on side walls of the appliance in each case.    Published unexamined patent application JP 2008 039 359A shows a refrigeration appliance wherein a plurality of light-emitting diodes are mounted on side walls in each case. The light-emitting diodes are covered by means of a diffuse cover.    Published unexamined patent application JP 2006 336 985A shows a refrigerator having three lighting units in each case arranged on internal walls of the refrigerator in each case. The light-emitting diodes are covered by means of a diffuse cover.